Consumer Buying Behavior Analysis: Kit-Kat

Consumer Buying Behavior:

It is obviously the need of individuals, groups or an organization that is in focus for any buying that shall take place. However a clear understanding of consumer’s buying behaviors empowers companies to successfully target their offering, servicing and marketing activities. Understanding buying behavior results in finding out the relevance of it in line with human needs and this becomes extremely important in light of fact that marketing is all about satisfying needs.

Any purchase is influenced and directed by the very motivation that the concerned buyer has to make the purchase. As we know the motivations could be varied, the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs if the appropriate model to understand the structure of this motivation. The five levels of such motivations (in bottom-up approach) would be “Psychological needs”, “Security needs”, “Social needs”, “Esteem needs ”, “Self-Actualization needs”. We however here would refrain from discussing the details of each of such motivation as they are self explanatory and hence assumed to be clear.

Once the motivation aspects are identified and studied, the marketing experts as per the need of their make the necessary changes or adaptation to their offering to enable the correct buying behavior. Coming to actual consumer buying behavior it is an interactive process involving the marketing activities of producer, the consumer psychological attributes and consumers purchase decisions.

Initially the need of consumer for given product is identified which is then transformed into marketing mix variable (4ps). Then the consumer psychologically evaluates the offerings in relation to these psychological needs (culture, attitude, previous learning’s and perceptions). This is then followed by decision of where and when to make the purchase in line with needs and choices. 

                                                                                                                                                           

Kit-Kat American Consumer Buying Behavior Analysis:

If we have to analyze the purchasing behavior of consumer of Kit-Kat in general it would be the psychological aspect that needs to be evaluated because all other aspect more of less either remains the same for all products or at least for the category of product that we are discussing. 

In terms of Maslow’s hierarchy that we discussed above, if we have to find a suitable motivator for Kit-Kat purchase it is obviously “Social Needs”. This is because chocolate is not something which can given one security and not something which is core needs of life and neither is it that give you a status symbol as it is not a niche product and hence the social need is what drives it sale (Sharp, 2009). Social need can be attached to it in the sense that the purchase are mostly made on impulse and are more driven by friends circle choice and among friends and relative only. 

We have ample evidence from research conducted and results published that the majority of consumer of product at this point of time are people in the range of 25-40. This is not very positive from company perspective as it is generally perceived that chocolates are something that is youth consumption driven . 

The obvious reason and explanation as is evident from data collected is that Kit-Kat at this point of time have not been able to keep youths attracted or is enable to create good new consumers of it, hence majority of consumers that are coming to it are loyal to brand because of their experience and image during their youth time.

Classical Conditioning Vs Operating Conditioning

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING vs. OPERANT CONDITIONING

There are many differences between Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning. Conditioning essentially means TRAINING. What we are doing in both types of conditioning, is training the subject to either change their behavior or show a response to a stimulus of our choice.

Classical Conditioning:

In this case, the goal is to make the subject respond to a stimulus of our choice. It refers to a biological, reflexive response. This response is given to a certain stimulus every time, no matter what, and it is out of the subject’s control.

In the case of Pavlov’s dog, the response is salivation. The dog does not consciously make himself salivate, it just happens every time food is present. The stimulus that elicits this reflexive response (called unconditioned response or UR) is called unconditioned stimulus or US. That means there was no training necessary for the response to occur.

The goal is to make the dog give this same response of salivation to a different stimulus other than the food, in Pavlov’s case, the bell. The bell is what we are training the dog to respond to, the Conditioned Stimulus or CS (needs training). Pairing up the bell (CS) with the food (US) repeatedly, will eventually get the dog to salivate to the sound of the bell in anticipation of the food. This process is not a conscious choice. Remember, the response is a reflex. Once we achieve the response to the bell (CS), this response is now the conditioned response (CR). The response the dog was trained to give.

Operant Conditioning:

This type of conditioning essentially means learning through the consequences of our actions. If the consequences are good, or we are rewarded for our behavior, then we tend to want to repeat it. If the consequences are bad, or we are punished for our behavior, then we tend to want to stop that behavior.

There are two types of rewards and two types of punishment in Operant Conditioning. But before I explain them, let’s think of Math for a moment. In Math, when we see this sign: + it means positive, or you are adding something (two numbers). In the same way, this sign: - means negative, or you are taking something away, subtracting (one number from another).

Keep these concepts in mind when going over the explanation that follows.

In Operant Conditioning, every time we see the word positive, it simply means we are adding something. Whenever we see the word negative, it simply means we are taking something away. Just like in Math.

So, whenever we want a behavior to continue, we will use Reinforcers (rewards). The two types of Reinforces we can use to make sure the behavior continues are:

Positive Reinforcement: We add something good after the behavior so it will continue. For example, if a child gets all A’s in school, I will add $ 5.00 as a reward.

Negative Reinforcement: We take away something unpleasant as a reward for the behavior so it will continue. For example, if the child finishes her homework, I will take away broccoli at dinner (assuming the child does not like broccoli).

Whenever we want a behavior to stop, we will use Punishers. The two types of Punishers we can use to make a behavior stop are:

Positive Punishment: We add an unpleasant consequence to a behavior so it will stop. For example, if you speed in the highway the police officer will add a ticket as a punishment so you will stop speeding.

Negative Punishment: We take away something the person likes as a way to make the behavior stop. For example, if the child does not finish her homework I will take away her video games (which she likes) as a punishment. That way I hope the behavior of not finishing homework will stop.

Main differences between Classical and Operant:

Classical conditioning is passive, there is no behavior involved, just reflexes. The best way to figure out classical conditioning elements is to start backwards:

First, identify the reflexive response UR (ex: salivation); then identify what elicits that response every time, no matter what US (ex: food). Add any stimulus you would like to pair with the CS (ex: bell). Note that the response (ex: salivation) NEVER CHANGES. What changes is what the subject responds to.

Operant conditioning is about behaviors. These are conscious choices we make based on the consequences of our actions. It is active learning, where we are making decisions and performing behaviors that are NOT reflexive, but intentional.